BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE IN CANCER SCREENING, CONTROL AND COMMUNICATION

With
Dr Rachael Dodd
Senior Research Fellow,
The Daffodil Centre, a Cancer Council NSW & The University of Sydney Joint Venture
Sydney, Australia

RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Sydney | April 2025

Dr Dodd completed her undergraduate in Psychology (2007), Masters in Health Psychology (2009) and PhD in Psychology (2016) in the UK. Her PhD focused on the psychosocial impact of HPV in people diagnosed with head and neck cancer, which resulted in the development of an education resource which is being implemented into clinical practice here in Australia and is available online. Dr Dodd relocated to The  University of Sydney in Australia in 2017, following the completion of her PhD. Her research capitalised on her expertise in HPV and focused on the changes to the cervical screening program that commenced in Australia in 2017.

Dr Dodd has an established international reputation as a behavioural scientist in cancer control and communication. Since completing her PhD in 2016, Dr Dodd has been awarded a three-year University of Sydney Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2018-2021) and a three-year Research Fellowship at The Daffodil Centre (current). Dr Dodd is the co-chair of the ‘Strengthening and optimising approaches to cancer prevention, screening, and early detection’ hub at The Daffodil Centre (with more than 130 staff and students).

Dr Dodd has published 78 research papers and is a CI on grants worth over $20 million. This has included being the lead investigator of an International Lung Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Grant, to co-design decision support tools for lung cancer screening in Australia and she is leading a consortium to develop the suite of information materials and education resources for the upcoming National Lung Cancer Screening Program. 

Source: Supplied